In a ground-breaking turn of events Kemi Badenoch won the top spot in Britainʼs Conservative Party becoming its first-ever Black woman leader. The 44-year old ex-trade minister beat her co-runner Robert Jenrick with 53‚806 votes (while Jenrick got just 41‚388)
The leadership change comes after the partyʼs worst-ever defeat last summer when their MP count dropped from 365 to 121. The once-mighty group lost big to Labour in what became a total re-shape of British politics. Since mid-2016 the party has seen five different leaders - a sign of its non-stop changes
Badenoch aims to fix things by going back-to-basics: “The time has come to tell the truth‚“ she said at her win speech. Her right-wing ideas include making government smaller and fighting what she calls left-wing thinking in institutions. The new leader (who replaced Rishi Sunak) thinks the party moved too far to the middle by “governing from the left“
Some party members think they can win back power by 2029; others worry that Badenochʼs strong views might push away middle-ground voters. Her time as minister showed she dont back down from fights with media celebs or civil servants. Still many Conservative members liked her straight-talking style which helped her beat out five other people for the job
The new leader set two main goals: “Our first responsibility as his majestys loyal opposition is to hold this Labour government to account; our second is no less important - its to prepare over the next few years for government“